G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting on Wednesday in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, which risks paralyzing discussions and jeopardizing any progress on the implementation of the common framework to restructure the debt of the poorest countries .
This is the first time that the big moneymakers of the G20 have met since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24.
They parted ways in Jakarta, Indonesia, on February 18, days before the Russian offensive began, promising to coordinate for a “stronger” global recovery.
The Russian offensive has drastically clouded the outlook, worsening inflation and causing a food crisis.
Indonesia, which chairs the G20, has repeated that it will remain impartial after strong calls to exclude Russia from meetings of the group of twenty major world economies including the United States, China, India, Brazil, the Japan, France and Germany.
But some ministers, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her French counterpart Bruno Le Maire, have decided to show their dissatisfaction by boycotting part of the sessions on Wednesday.
They will nevertheless participate in the opening meeting devoted to the world economy to point out how this conflict has repercussions all over the world.
The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth to 3.6% this year, from 4.4% projected in January.
He also warned that a stalemate in the war in Ukraine and tougher sanctions on Moscow would further damage the global outlook.
Western nations responded to the bloody onslaught with sanctions aimed at cutting off Russia’s financial resources. Some Russian banks are excluded from the Swift international payment system and the central bank no longer has access to some of its reserves.
Tribune for Moscow?
But the United States and other allies are in favor of increasing the pressure on Moscow. Other countries like Germany, dependent on Russia for their energy supply, are less inclined to follow suit.
German government sources told AFP that the German delegation would take part in the meetings on Wednesday “despite the possible presence of Russian representatives”.
“We are clearly of the opinion that we will not let Russia directly or indirectly sabotage the important multilateral work,” they argued.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) himself told the Bild newspaper on Monday that German officials would “not leave lies and propaganda unanswered”.
At the French Ministry of the Economy, we underline “a very strong will of a large part of the members of these organizations to denounce very clearly the invasion of Ukraine at each of these meetings”.
“At the G20, probably several G7 countries will attend the first part of the meeting but could at the level of ministers leave their chairs (empty) when Russia speaks”, it was explained.
In addition, several states, in particular France, have requested the invitation of Ukrainian Finance Minister Serguiy Marchenko to the G20. His virtual or in-person attendance, however, has not been confirmed.
How to treat Russian representatives has been the subject of “long discussions”, particularly within the G20 and G7 countries, it is pointed out on the German side. Germany “will not offer Russia a platform to defend its invasion contrary to international law”, it was continued.
In Europe as in the United States, there are doubts about the ability of the G20 to agree on a common final declaration.
Despite the tensions surrounding this G20, the IMF and the World Bank have already called for us not to lose course, stressing the urgency of implementing the common framework of the G20 to restructure the debt of poor countries when 60 % of low-income countries are in over-indebtedness or at risk of being in the near future.